Review of the 1999 Trademark Decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Abstract

ion. Bancorp, 687 F.3d at 1273-74 (“[T]he determination of patent eligibility requires a full understanding of the basic character of the claimed subject matter.”) For the ’505 Patent, the end result of “maintaining the state” is described as the innovation over the prior art, and the essential, “most important aspect”: The most important aspect of the user interface of the present invention is not that it has tabs or that it enables a certain amount of non-sequential (non-linear) access to the various form sets within a virtual application, but that it maintains data state across all panes. INTERNET PATENTS CORPORATION v. ACTIVE NETWORK, INC. 10 Col. 9 ll. 45-49. IPC stresses the unconventionality of the claim elements of maintaining the state, furnishing icons on a web page with a browser having Back and Forward navigation functions, and displaying an online application form. IPC Supp. Br. at 9-10. We agree with the district court that the character of the claimed invention is an abstract idea: the idea of retaining information in the navigation of online forms. Mayo notes the insufficiency of “well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known” to found an “inventive concept.” 132 S. Ct. at 1298. The ’505 Patent specification refers to the “browser Back and Forward button functionality” as “conventional.” Col. 3 ll. 5-10. The specification also refers to the Back and Forward functionality as “well-known” and “common,” e.g., “Furthermore, the common convenience of the ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ buttons (provided in all well-known Internet browsers) generally does not function properly when filling in online forms.” Col. 2 ll. 37-40. The specification also states that the use of internet web pages for users to fill out online applications was brought about by “[t]he increasing popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web,” and describes these online application systems as generating information to the user based on information inputted by the user. Col. 1 ll. 40-60. As the district court observed, claim 1 contains no restriction on how the result is accomplished. The mechanism for maintaining the state is not described, although this is stated to be the essential innovation. The court concluded that the claim is directed to the idea itself—the abstract idea of avoiding loss of data. IPC’s proposed interpretation of “maintaining state” describes the effect or result dissociated from any method by which maintaining the state is accomplished upon the activation of an icon. Thus we affirm that claim 1 is not directed to patent-eligible subject matter. INTERNET PATENTS CORPORATION v. ACTIVE NETWORK, INC. 11